1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to cast nets. More particularly, it relates to a cast net having a structure that opens easily and that facilitates replacement of broken brails.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cast nets are small, hand-thrown nets that have a round circumference when properly thrown. A plurality of small weights are secured to the outer periphery of the net, in circumferentially spaced relation to one another. Thus, as the net sinks under the influence of such weights, fish beneath the net are trapped. When the cast net is hauled in, the weights converge toward one another so that the fish cannot escape.
In the most commonly used type of cast net, a first end of an elongate rope is secured around a wrist of the individual throwing the net. The rope is coiled and held in the throwing hand; thus, the rope is rapidly uncoiled when the net is thrown. The second end of the rope is typically secured to the top ring of a two ring swivel member. A large number of draw strings, known in the industry as brails, are looped over the bottom ring of the swivel member, at their respective mid-points, and terminate at the outer periphery of the cast net, i.e., the opposite ends of said brails are secured to the same peripheral edge of the cast net to which the above-mentioned weights are attached. Typically, twine is used to whip the brails together just below the second ring.
There are several problems with the well-known construction just described. The brails are easily tangled around one another in the region between the swivel member and the main body of the net, and when they are tangled they prevent the draw line from fully extending. A greater problem arises, however, when a brail breaks. It requires considerable time and effort to cut off the whipped twine to gain access to the brails, to replace the brail by extending it through the bottom ring of the swivel member and down to the edge of the nets, and to re-whip the twine again around the brails.
Since the brails are looped over a ring as above-described, they may become uneven when hung-up on an oyster bar, a rock, or other obstacle. If a brail is uneven, i.e., if it is no longer looped over the ring at its half-way point, the cast net will not open evenly. Adjusting a brail that has become uneven requires cutting the twine that whips around the brails, adjusting the uneven brail, and again whipping twine about the brails.
What is needed, then, is a new structure for a casting net that facilitates the replacement of broken brails, the adjusting of uneven brails, and which does not rely on twine for whipping brails into a bundle.
However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how such a structure could be made.